phones

Each week, we track the hottest ringtones.

In this week's roundup of Billboard's top ringtones, a new artist has cracked the top 10. His name is T-Pain and his song "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" has nabbed the 10th spot this week. After its debut at number 16 last week, the catchy R&B tune seems to be gathering momentum.

Originally from Tallahassee, Florida, T-Pain seems to have no problem singing about the digital age; two of his previous hits are titled "Send Me an E-Mail," and "What's Yo Myspace.&… Read more

Everyone seems to have an awesome story or two about cell phones getting destroyed at parties. I've heard tales about them getting thrown into pools, flushed down toilets, dropped into cakes, and pretty much everything else. They make great "embarrassing tales of the digital age" stories. And it's even better when they happened to your friends, not you. Like this one, about my friend Cliff and his dear departed Razr.

It was my roommate's birthday this weekend, and our former college buddy Cliff (think Bluto Blutarsky, except 6 feet 7 inches tall) had driven up … Read more

Morgan Pozgar, a 13-year-old, won LG's National Texting Championship yesterday. Her fast fingers netted her $25,000.

Pozgar bested her East Coast competitors and won $10,000 along with the title of East Coast champ.

With little time to ice her thumbs, the 13-year-old successfully texted "Supercalifragilisticexpialidoucious! Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious," to beat Eli Tirosh (who won the West Coast crown).

So the next time you get on your teen's case for texting, just remember that they're in … Read more

Earlier this week, Microsoft filed what appeared to be a patent application for a smart phone interface, causing many a blog to begin speculating that maybe it was for a "Zune phone" (for better or for worse)--something that's been talked about for some time now. The images in the application, showing a tiled graphical interface, definitely look somewhat iPhone-ish, and plenty of buzz arose that perhaps Microsoft was trying to develop an "iPhone killer."

But a few sharp eyes (namely, those of our Microsoft guru Ina Fried) noticed that the interface also bore a … Read more

Seeing yesterday's $10,000 phone reminded us (unfortunately) of the leopard-spotted diamond Krzr from the same designer, as well as a perfectly matching mouse from Saks. It then occurred to us: These fancy designers aren't the only ones who can come up with audaciously ugly phones and mice.

Textually.org, for example, notes that Amosu.com will "customize your cell phone with diamonds, gold or white gold or make one unique piece according to your specification." And for your bejeweled mouse, Gadget Candy suggests U.K.-based The Crystal Chick, which will create "Brit-born babies&… Read more

It's being reported that Disney Mobile, a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) that runs off Sprint's network, will be getting some new features. Starting later this summer, users will be able to upload photos from their camera phones to a Disney photo-sharing site. Each user will get his or her own page, and parents will be able to control the ability of the kids to share photos outside the family.

The Call Control feature will be accessible through a parent's handset in the summer as well. This feature, which lets the grown-ups dole out and restrict minutes … Read more

If phones have become a staple of fashion accessories, then it stands to reason that they should have proper representation--as in a modeling agency.

Elite Model Look has taken care of that, signing French phone designer ModeLabs to create its "Elite EML 1" handset. Pricing and availability for non-models remain a mystery for now, but the marketing literature is classic: "It's glamorous, naturally into multimedia, and wears the trendiest colours. It gets with the rhythm of the music and grabs every moment in photo or video. My new Elite EML2--it's a whole 'Attitude'!"

As … Read more

After crowning the West Coast champ last month, the winner of LG's National Texting Championship will be determined tomorrow night in New York, with $25,000 at stake.

The East Coast "texthletes" will use their enV or V handsets to compete in single-elimination brackets to determine the East Coast champ. That person wins $10,000, and later that day they will take on Eli Tirosh (who won the West Coast crown) for an extra $15,000.

Registration is still open as of press time, and it seems like it could be worth your time even if you … Read more

If your phone has a rotten Web browser, bookmark Mowser, and use it as the front-end to the Web on your mobile. Mowser transcodes any page into a Web-friendly format, stripping out large graphics and splitting a Web page into smaller pages that a phone can handle. It's also RSS-aware: If there's an RSS feed on a page you visit, it will provide a link for it, and transcode the feed into a format your phone can easily display.

The service has built-in bookmarks for major sites that are already mobile friendly (which it does not transcode) and … Read more